


A Question and A Promise

by jalendavi_lady



Series: Winry And Roy series from fma_fic_contest [22]
Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Canon - First Anime, Community: fma_fic_contest, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-03
Updated: 2010-06-03
Packaged: 2017-10-13 05:20:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/133416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jalendavi_lady/pseuds/jalendavi_lady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Before Mustang leaves Risembool, Winry has a question to ask him. An Episode 44 missing moments.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Question and A Promise

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the 'Oh Hell' (open word count) prompt at [](http://www.livejournal.com/users/fma_fic_contest/profile)[**fma_fic_contest**](http://www.livejournal.com/users/fma_fic_contest/) .

Roy heard the footsteps behind him as he stepped outside for a moment alone as his men finished cleaning the Rockbell home in thanks for the night's quarter.

He turned to see who it was.

 _Oh hell._

Miss Winry Rockbell was standing right there, and from the look in her eyes she'd been crying sometime in the past few hours. And he knew she hadn't looked like that at breakfast.

No one else was around. "Miss Rockbell, I'm sorry if my spending the night here distressed you."

She shook her head. "No, it's not that."

 _Good._

He was very aware of just how alone they were.

"Did... um..." she started to say, and then stopped.

He nodded encouragement for her to continue, a little frightened by what she might ask.

"Did Mister Hughes _know_?"

He almost - almost - corrected her dropping of Maes' military rank. But no, Miss Rockbell had known him, however briefly, as the warm family man he'd been off-duty and not as the hardened soldier who climbed the outside of trains and could hit a target at 100 yards with a thrown knife.

Instead, he nodded, slightly relieved that she was asking something that didn't require him to talk about Ishbal again unless he wished to. "He knew. Gracia wouldn't know."

Winry seemed to consider that for a moment.

"The last time I tried to commit suicide, he was the one who found and stopped me," he offered, reluctantly.

"Oh." Her eyes widened. "Oh! Gracia said he'd been helping you rise to the top," she half-whispered, obviously thinking out loud. "I thought you'd manipulated him into backing you, but it was the other way around?"

He nodded.

There was something satisfied in her eyes.

"Miss Rockbell, there's a plan to keep anything that may happen from creating a backlash against you and your grandmother. You need to listen to her once things start happening."

She nodded, then tilted her head. "I thought you had to check what Ed found out about the Fuhrer first..."

He smirked. "That's what Ed thinks. I've been planning this for a long time, Miss Rockbell. Even if he's _not_ a homunculus..."

She closed her eyes and nodded the slightest bit.

 _Good. She's got just enough emotional distance to still understand that being given orders to do something horrible means a chain of command that actively supports atrocity._

He turned to go back inside.

"Colonel."

He stopped with his hand on the doorknob. "Yes, Miss Rockbell?"

"I hope you win." She paused, clearly uneasy. "I hope you survive."

He bowed his head slightly in thanks. "Thank you." He didn't tell her that half a night ago, her grandmother had said much the same.

"And maybe someday you can explain all of this to me without having to shelter me because I'm safer not knowing things?"

He felt his eyebrows raise slightly. _Smart girl._ He smiled grimly. "If that is what you wish then, when it _is_ safe, I may do just that."

Hawkeye came around the corner of the house. He held the door open for Winry, and then turned to face Hawkeye again.

"Everything's nearly ready, sir," she told him. Another five minutes, and Breda will have the last of the front porch swept."

"And then off to whatever may happen," he whispered.

She nodded, grimly.

He'd deliberately not stressed to Winry that he might not be alive to fulfill that promise. He figured her wish for his survival meant she already understood that.

He sighed, shrugging off the thoughts. He didn't have the time for that right now, might not at all until the battle was met and done, and he'd learned the hard way from others in Ishbal that sometimes focusing on one's risk of death meant losing the focus needed to survive.

And he'd need every bit of focus he could get when he faced down Bradley.

"It's really a pretty town, isn't it?" he asked, stalling.

"Yes, sir."

He sighed. "Let's go check on Breda."


End file.
